traditional MLs ?

[Fly]

On another post GoexBuckhorn mentioned traditional MLs are less & less in popularity. He is spot on.
Many of us on this form are the ole school crowd. We were the ones growing up with Davey Crocket,
Daniel Boon, watch shows like the Alamo, & mountain men movies.

Young people today do not seem to be into history as we were. Westerns were made on a daily basis.
I wish we could find away to replenish the love of our hobby. Heck many of the young today do not
even know why the civil war was fought. So sad!

Fly

[Half Dog]

It's sad to hear the progress that Russia is making, in a new type of arms race, and our future (college students) are needing a safe space. Hopefully, I will be watching the result from above.

[tdoyka]

its hard to find a person that uses the flint and steel. everybody uses a inline these days. heck i've had one. i shot a several deer with it but it was more like a single shot rifle. put in pellets, put in a sabot with bullet and then put a shotgun primer. then you can look at the scope and go bang.

i used to love when flintlock deer season began. i liked it so much i almost got a 36 cal flintlock so i could shoot grey squirrels. but like most things, i didn't.

[charlie b]

Heck, Davy Crockett's dad probably said the same thing. Why Davy didn't use a bow and arrow instead of the modern flintlock.

Or Teddy Roosevelt's dad telling him a flintlock was so much better than the "assault rifle" Teddy hunted with.

IMHO, the ONLY reason there is any popularity of muzzleloaders is the special hunting seasons. If not for that, then we who use the old smoke poles would be even fewer, and we'd have even fewer choices of guns to buy.

[NSB]

Well stated charlie b. If it weren't for the special seasons finding a side lock muzzle loader shooter would be like looking for hen's teeth. Let's just be happy we have those seasons and can get out and hunt with what ever type of muzzle loader we have. It's still about the sport of hunting and being outdoors.

[Fly]

Quote (It's still about the sport of hunting and being outdoors.) No it not about hunting my friend. I got
into muzzle loading in the mid 1970,s. I did not get into it for hunting. I got into it to experience what it
was like to shoot these ole guns.

There are many more here that feel as I. Do you think the guys with the 1858 remey revolvers bought them to hunt
with. You have your place here also. But this sport is a lot more than just hunting. Muzzle loader deer season was born
from the days of the sport of traditional muzzle loader. Yes I have hunted with mind. But I really hunted, & not like many
today. Feeders, Camera's & so on. I have a guy that lives near by that has all that. He has a feed to his computer from
his camera to monitor the dear behind his house in the woods.

He kill a huge buck we have been feeding for years around here. Then went bragging to his buddys with the pictures of his kill.
Oh well this post was not about the hunters out there. It was addressed to the ole traditional love of black powder guys as me.

Fly

[RogerDat]

I have to agree with Fly on this one... and yet....
I did grow up with hero's such as Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone and a host of mountain men in books and movies. Cowboys too. My first handgun was a cap & ball in 36 caliber, my second many years later was a Ruger Vaquero in 45 Colt. Don't forget the untouchable or Dragnet. Brother and myself received Kentucky rifle and pistol sets for Christmas one year, used caps to fire cork balls. Best damn Christmas as a kid, outside of the one when I got a Timex watch.

I think the two, inline and side lock, are totally different groups with different needs and motivations. There are some people who fit in both groups, but there are some that only fit in one or the other. People that only own an inline, and then only to hunt with. And probably some that only have an interest in the "real deal" and may not even have any interest in hunting, or only want to hunt in period fashion, with period tools.

Me I'm fine with that, not everyone with a shotgun wants to shoot skeet, or doves. Takes all sorts and I would have a tough time picking between and inline with a scope and a flintlock. The first is practical and state of the art, the second is really cool. I would probably lean toward the flintlock but then that is what I grew up coveting and playing with. Not much different than I'm not a big fan of autoloader pistols, my hero's had wheel guns. BUT if we are talking a 1911 in 45 ACP just like they had on rat patrol and all those movies when I was a kid? That be different, bring it! Heck bring two!

[johnson1942]

i like side locks and i even have 2 inlines but my side locks make me feel good. i built a nice hawken type with brass tacks and all. it would make a mountain man feel real good. however it is a sleeper.the barrel is 50 cal 1/28 twist. octagon 1 inch diam 36 inches long. it shoots a 540 grain paperpatched bullet with 80 grains of powder driving the bullet. it will drop a buffalo and such easily. i made it look 1840/s but it is a powerful as a 50/90 sharps. best of both worlds. may go elk hunting with it some day.

[Fly]

Your right on Roger. I have always loved guns, but history also. Most that know me here know I make
my own black powder. I don't use the new fake stuff. It just not the same. But I also have many WW11
military rifles. I could care less about the plastic black guns. We are all different cats.

Fly

[Lead pot]

Fly.

Today is a different world then what you and I grew up in. I don't know you or your age but I'm 76 and history is not being taught in School like it was when I was in School. I asked my older Grand Daughters once a question about the Revolution of 1776 and I got a blank look when I asked what year it started she said we haven't studied much about the wars.
Just lately My 7 year old Grand Daughter asked me if I had something for show and tell for her to take to School and I said yes I have. She has watched me knap flint arrow points in the past and starting a fire with flint and steel so I made her up a display of points and a fire starting kit to take to School for her show and tell. When she asked her teacher if she can have show and tell the next day and the teacher asked what about she was told you cant bring those weapons to School. I was floored when I heard this.
I went to a one room grade School house till 8'th grade and rode a bike or horse back and I had my .22 single shot over the handlebars or in my lap, I rode bareback in the winter, and the rifle went in the close closet during School and a few of us shot rats at the dump after school. This **** now days going on just didn't happen that I know of when I was a kid.

Later in life in my teens and twenty's we had turkey shoots with M/L rifles, cutting balls on ax heads, shooting balls at the V or X with out cutting the lines and driving nails through boards with the barrels on a log. Over the log shoots. A lot of the guys and gals dressed in early clothing some not and we had a big round cast iron hog butcher pot over a fire with beans and what ever in the beans and this lasted way past dark with guys playing hill music.
Now days that's all gone and most are looking up at the grass roots. Kids pilling the triggers as fast as they can kicking up dust down range. Sometimes some will come over to see what I'm shooting and I always ask if they would like to get behind my front stuffer or the suppository rifle, Sharps, or Stevens. I always have a lesser caliber for the young to shoot if Dad gives the OK.
Things just are not the same this day and age.
Kurt

[RogerDat]

Yep who would want to watch the bad guy guard at the ranch watching to ambush the hero get hit in the head with a piece of Tupperware? He would be like ouch! why did you do that, and then raise the alarm, rap him with a nice sized Colt and he won't be back in action until the closing credits roll. Crockett at the Alamo using his rifle like a club would be one short scene if he hit them with a plastic stock! Rut Roe Eroy! Time out?

Sorry it just had to be said

I may be nuts but I want three 1863 New Army cap and balls (one in a shoulder rig) plus a pirate sword and a blunder buss and anything in 45-70 and.... boys and toys

[rfd]

for me it's a nostalgic throwback to simpler but tougher times of self sufficiency, and i find trad ml's to be beautiful, but deadly, art.

getting the young glock/ar15 dudes of today interested isn't hard at all with a properly conducted hands on show 'n' tell, more than a few get the bug, and the onus is on us far older dudes to spark their imaginations and desires.

[charlie b]

I own a muzzle loader because it is fun to shoot. That's it. And yes, I almost got an inline cause they were cheaper but I found my great plains instead.

It's not about history or anything like that for me. It's just fun. Same reason I shoot my M1 Garand or my AK. Why an M1? Cause my father-in-law gave it to me. Otherwise I'd probably still have one of my old bolt actions or TC Contender.

Back when I hunted I usually used one of my bolt guns. But, then it got too crowded during regular gun season so I got out the ML. When I stopped hunting I got rid of a lot of guns. Now I only keep what I like to shoot.

And, yes, if not for ML hunting seasons our availability of ML's would be far less than it is today. FYI, my first ML was a Rem Army that I bought as a kit in 1972 in Germany.

[Squeeze]

I started muzzleloading with traditionals. But now I mostly shoot inlines and modern style. I also shoot recurves, and now lately, in late season, when I have to wear 4 inches of clothes, I also shoot a crossbow. In truth, I kind of drifted away from trad muzzleloading, with probably the biggest reason being the attitude of the "purists" and their whole better than thou attitude at anything not rocklock. even when I was shooting sidelocks, I never wanted to dress the part, or worry about everything being "period correct". I am a stubborn bull headed type, raised to figure things out for myself, and take directions from others with a grain of salt, akin to everyone has an opinion. I figured most things out on my own, through trial and error, and making all those mistakes on my own to learn the how and why of lifes lessons. Like that typical rebellious teen, the quickest way to make me NOT do something, is to tell me I HAVE to do it this way. ALL those monotone repeats of "that's not a real gun" and so and so.. Just pisses me off enough to think. Well if THAT makes you mad, just watch me now. I was raised by Scandinavian immigrants, from a long line of commercial fishermen. Much of their daily routine, was keeping secrets, even from family. where were you coming from with that big haul? what, how why... was many times a question taught NOT to even ask. There was a kind of theory, that the life lessons learned the hard way, are the ones best remembered. and telling you daily, go there, set this way, may get you to bring in the fish today, but it wont make you the fisherman you need to be for tomorrow. There are always variables, and everything does not always go by a set of black and white rules. The two best, "top dog" captains in port may have totally different styles, but on any given day, either is likely to be the king.. And just because something may work the best for one captain, It is not automatically THE way for everyone all the time.
For a while, the main thing that drove me away from trad ML style, WAS the talk of This is the only way, that powderhorn aint right, you cant wear/ do THAT... THAT pissed me off, so in my way, I had to rebel, and prove to you/me/him that there were other ways.. or just to piss you off back by doing it with an ultra modern custom...
Now I just grab whatever happens to suit my fancy or mood on a particular day. BUT I do carry an inline much more often.

[pietro]

.

I'm a long-time (55+ years) hunter, and moved from sidelock hammer guns to the first modern inlines, to the later inlines, then underhammers, but finally to rocklocks & capguns.

IOW, I eventually returned to the Dark Side..........

One good thing about the recent unpopularity of traditional frontstuffers is that most of the the guns I now prefer are relatively less expensive than they once were.


.

[JWFilips]

Very Sad In deed!

[Good Cheer]

Quote (It's still about the sport of hunting and being outdoors.) No it not about hunting my friend. I got
into muzzle loading in the mid 1970,s. I did not get into it for hunting. I got into it to experience what it
was like to shoot these ole guns.

There are many more here that feel as I. Do you think the guys with the 1858 remey revolvers bought them to hunt
with. You have your place here also. But this sport is a lot more than just hunting. Muzzle loader deer season was born
from the days of the sport of traditional muzzle loader. Yes I have hunted with mind. But I really hunted, & not like many
today. Feeders, Camera's & so on. I have a guy that lives near by that has all that. He has a feed to his computer from
his camera to monitor the dear behind his house in the woods.

He kill a huge buck we have been feeding for years around here. Then went bragging to his buddys with the pictures of his kill.
Oh well this post was not about the hunters out there. It was addressed to the ole traditional love of black powder guys as me.

Fly

Oh my gosh. In Texas people got all worked up about how I could shoot deer off the back porch and now it's the same in Indiana. In Texas I used to tell them "well yes, but they have names". It's done got to be about the same way up here on the corn tundra. I mean good grief, how many times do you walk out on the deck and yell at the ten point to get the *%$# out of the bird feeder? And leave the grape vines and blue berry bushes alone *&%$#@!!
The funniest one has been the yearling that came up to the living room window and kept nosing the shepherds hook where the bird feed cake was supposed to be. The better 2/3's gets a chuckle about it because they won't eat the store stock feed. Oh no, they want to empty the bird feeders.

[Good Cheer]

About people having value in shooting traditional muzzleloaders, work on it every chance you get.
There's a big segment of the populace that loves side locks once introduced.

[Lead pot]

Or have a yearling come up to the bay window and head but the little yearling looking back at him. LOL.

[wingspar]

I’m no young thing either. I have not heard the words “Davy Crocket” for years. Doubt that I ever missed an episode. As for muzzleloading. I got interested in it a couple of years ago from watching hickock45 videos and only took possession of my first ML last week. Weather has prevented me from shooting it, and may very well prevent shooting it for a few weeks. It’s a TC Renegade side lock. I like the looks of the side locks and have no interest in the modern inline’s. Doubt I’ll try a flintlock either. Can’t wait to shoot it. I am a late bloomer at the age of 70 when it comes to muzzleloaders. Sure, I own an AR, AK and tons of other modern firearms. Steel, plastic, but it seems to me that a muzzleloader will force me to slow down (I’m doing that anyway cause I’m not 20 something anymore) and enjoy it. I do not hunt and if I did, I’d probably use a bolt gun.